Commercial Businesses

Step 1: Planning the Layout

While you do not have as much control over a commercial business as you did with Sims 2: Open For Business, but you can make some cool buildings where your Sims can hangout. For New Pyroville, we’re missing a singles’ bar, so that’s what I’m going to build for them.

Because of the previous section, you know all the basics of the tools, so I won’t go into exact details there. However, we’ll still have plenty of screenshots!

Being a singles’ bar, the design will be pretty simple. We’ll have a couple tables and chairs, a bar in the center, and some entertainment off to the other side. A stereo for dancing is a must, though we’ll put in a couple foosball tables. (I’d prefer pool tables, but EA decided not to put them in the game… yet. Must be saving them for an expansion.)

Step 2: Choosing a Lot

You need to think about the intent of your community building and choose a lot size that’s appropriate. A park would be best placed on a large lot, for example. Because this will be a relatively small singles bar (only one floor), we’ll go with the smallest possible lot, a 20x30.

Now, all blank lots default to being residential lots. To switch one over to commercial, first you need to click the blank lot. The info box will pop up on the right side of the screen. There, click the round button that is half a park bench and half a house. You won’t see a confirmation after you click it; the change is instantaneous. If you make a mistake you can always instantly switch it back over, of course. The map tag of an empty community lot is the hollow square (at a 45-degree angle) with a park bench in the middle.

Anyway, with my lot selected and switched (it’s right down the street from the Falkons’ starter home), it’s time to in and start building!

Steps 3–5: Foundation, Basement, and Walls & Fences

Sims can’t really get drunk, for the sake of role-playing, it would be pretty dangerous to stick a bar on any foundation unless I want my patrons to vomit their way down the stairs to the ground. A basement is pointless too, so forget that. We’re going to make enough walls to encompass the whole building, then make a couple bathrooms near the back.

Also for the sake of role-playing, the building won’t have any need for fences. Granted that kids will probably show up to the singles’ bar just because I don’t have control over that kind of thing, but hey: if there isn’t much for them, maybe they’ll stay away!

Anyway, as you can see, the design is pretty simple. That area to the left, “under” the bathrooms, will be a waiting room or lobby of sorts. The action will be to the right.

Steps 6–7: Doors, Floors, Wall Coverings, Windows, and Coordination

Unlike previous versions of The Sims, we don’t have gender specific doors, so the bathrooms are going to be unisex. I put a couple basic wooden doors there, then a commercial-like all-glass door for the “front” door…

Not any other doors here… pretty quick, huh? Commercial buildings are so much more simple than houses! We’ll coat the floors and walls in the bathroom with tile. The lobby gets carpet, and the main area gets wood, as this isn’t a seedy bar. Which reminds me, the walls otherwise are nice wood paneling. I color the bathrooms differently even though they’re both unisex, and coordinate the floor and walls of the rest. The external wall gets red bricks with some white mortar in the corner. No windows here, because as unseedy as it is, this is still a singles’ bar; and if the lights are low, the attractive people will be Woo Hooing with the ugly people before they realize their mistake!

No additional floors and no balconies here. The building proper is done, so we can throw on the roof, which we’ll make just a flat flooring of tar.

Now, the landscaping is going to be the fun part. I’m not going to be putting any gardens in there or anything because, again, this isn’t supposed to be a place for kids to play out in the grass. First, we slap down some pavement and set up a few parking spots, and light up the parking lot with a couple outside lights. We also put down (with floor tiles) a brick walkway up from the sidewalk to the front door, and light that too.

I notice the roof is now the same texture as the parking lot, so I call an audible and change up the roof to an actual roof, just for some variety. Never be afraid to alter something you’ve already done if you see a conflict.

The thing looks more like a pizza joint than a singles’ bar… oh well. Next, inside the building proper, first we do the bathrooms with stalls and sinks, coordinated with colors to the match the bathrooms themselves. We have to use stalls, or Sims will only visit the bathrooms one at a time. While I’m at it, I recolor the doors to the bathrooms even though it’s tacky as heck…

Next we do up the lobby with some middle-of-the-road love seats. I’d also put a phone in but the game won’t let me since it’s a community lot… I guess the New Pyroville cops have to fill their DUI quotas!

Next up is the bar, bar counter itself, and bar stools, all located in the core of the main room…

Now a stereo and a TV for the bar, which also means I put a new little diagonal wall so everyone can watch…

…Man, very tacky, isn’t it? I need to fill in some of that empty space with chairs and tables even though there is no way to have Sims eat here. (Maybe I can edit it in a future expansion pack?)

Let’s throw in a couple searchlights in the back, and then we’re done!

You can tell this is definitely a singles’ bar, because only the truly desperate would come to something this gaudy. Oh well, maybe some romances will blossom anyway! You can download the Truly Tacky Singles Bar from here…